Barack WHO?

You'd think the US Executives, Legislators and Judges could come up with a rotating safeword or some such to help ascertain identities over the phone.
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"Hello, the Speaker crosses at midnight."
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"Only if she's wearing the blue cashmere dress."
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"Donkeys run where elephants gazed."
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"Why, hello, Mr. President!"

he was either “very gracious” to reach across the aisle by contacting her, or “had run out of folks to call, if you are truly calling me.”

Yet another person refusing to take Obama at his word and projecting their own personality on the Mirror in Chief!

How civility has degenerated, during at least the last 8 years, maybe well before that. Imagine a Democratic President-elect calling a Republican. And Paul, she needs to apologize for that "either-or." Gosh, he couldn't possibly have been gracious, could he?

Those republicans are a paranoid bunch. You can't show any "common courtesy" otherwise you are cast out by the cult.
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I can't blame her for not wanting to get sucked in by a couple of jocks at a radio station.
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She could've been more gracious...how many Rahm Emmanuel impressionists are there, anyway? Call Rich Little....

You know, I think that a lot of the republicans have been a little taken back by the efforts Obama has been making to reach out to them and treat them like adults and with respect. This is of course after being treated with nothing more than contempt by the present administration for the last 8 years. I happen to have seen this particular congresswoman several times on Real Time where she is a frequent guest and often out numbered in her view point. While I don't agree with her view points at all, I do respect the fact that she is willing to express them in a setting where she knows most are not going to agree with her.

"common courtesy"=Weakness to many on the right.

PNNTO: To the cult, she's still a true believer. To rest of the population, she's an uncouth boor, who has no respect for Obama nor the the office to which he has been elected.
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Let's face it, Republicans are bullies who will say, or do anything to get elected. It's been that way for almost 100 years. Taft, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, McCarthy, Nixon, Gingrich, Atwater, Rove, Bushes I and II, McCain, Palin, ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

Andy read Neal Gabler's story from the LATimes when you get a chance.
About the McCarthy gene that runs through that party.
When I link my comment gets "disappeared"

He didn't say, "3 December," at the beginning of the call so she thought he was a Terminator. The bit about being punked by radio jocks was just a cover.

JNS on MSNBC with Schuster talking about the big 3 bailout. A first for her, I think. You go girl.

Paranoid much. Andy has it right, paranoia is a/the defining characteristic of the right. PNNTO's link: The GOP's McCarthy gene Think Goldwater is the father of conservatism? Think again.

PNNTO, my link to Gabler link got thru. But when I link to Maddow I get disappeared.
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Hmmmm.

Speaking of Maddow, here she is on Bush's legacy.

It's really true. I get disappeared whenever I link to Maddow. But other links get through fine. Can anyone else link to Maddow?

wvng - what link are you trying to embed?

PNNTO: did you see this in the NY Times?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/opinion/04seife.html?ref=opinion

I'm going to cut her some slack regarding "graciousness." If I were a congressman outside of the highest ranges of the pecking order, I'd also be kind of curious why the president-elect would call me. Something along the lines of, "I'm just a peon - what do you want with me?"
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But I tend to be defensive, and I'd be leery of being scammed, too.
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Wouldn't caller ID help, though?

kathy, the High Sheriffs decided to make a liar of me by approving my link to Maddow at #12. And they cleverly put a delay on posting #12 until I sent #13 to make me look not just like a liar but also an idiot. /shame
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It's a great link, btw.

Nice Guy, she knows Rahm. She works with him, she has, presumably, talked to him.

Interesting link Andy thanks. My nephew is currently disenfranchised. He voted absentee from college. He filled out the ballot and attendant forms correctly but the return envelope from the county had the district and precinct reversed (i.e. District 3 Precinct 2 instead of 2 and 3) so he was disqualified for voting out of the wrong precinct.
Human error but not by the voter.
His first presidential election and he is pretty angry. I don't blame him.

KT -- You read her words in print and they convey a different tone that if you heard them out loud. I'll stipulate your point.

KT - Comments 20 and 21: Unless Obama was calling using his Blackberry.